People who want to start eating more whole grain foods are often unsure about how to find them. The key is knowing which words to look for and which ones to avoid.

“100% wheat” - means that the only grain contained in the product is wheat. The food may not contain whole wheat. It is not the 100% of one grain that is important, but to see if it is the whole grain.

“Multigrain” - A word that means the product contains more than one kind of grain. The food may not contain whole grains. It might be a combination of many refined grains.

“Stone ground”-This term refers to grain that is coarsely ground and may contain the germ, but not the bran. Stone ground flour is more healthy than the refined, bleached flour because it contains the bran. Milled flour removes the bran.

Soaked and cooked whole grains are better than whole grain stone ground flour, especially for diabetics, high cholesterol and hypertensive patients, because whole grains contain bran and the endosperm, the fiber rich portion.